HYDERABAD: Sindh Irrigation Minister Murad Ali Shah has said that the provincial government plans to move the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to address shortcomings of Water Apportionment Accord 1991. He called for doing away with lacunas of the accord like operation principles of two dams — Tarbela and Mangla — link canals, sharing of shortages and surplus of water flows. "That's why we are in process to move to CCI, Mr Shah told Dawn on telephone.

The minister said that he is perturbed over the fact that non-availability of criteria how to fill and empty dams creates problems and said that procedure how to open link canals is not documented. "Differing opinions over sharing of shortages and surplus create a big difference because Punjab has a different reading of the situation when there is shortage as it always talks of sharing them as per historic usages, he said. Punjab invokes para-2 of the accord which refers to usages of water between 1972 and 82 but Sindh insists that after criteria of three 10 dailies (allocation for first, second and third 10 days of a month under 14-A and B clauses to reflect seasonal allocations, the historic usage formula gets redundant", he said.

Sindh plans to move CCI on water accord By Mohammad Hussain Khan Thursday, 22 Jul, 2010 This is Sindh of Mighty River Indus without Water.